New Releases: May 9th-15th, 2024

This week, ‘Older’ Nep seizes the reigns of a development studio in Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution, Crow Country frightens with retro-flavored horror, and 2022’s Biomutant spawns a Switch port. If none of those sound appealing, perhaps QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~’s (pictured) heartfelt tale of an android and her maker might interest.

PlayStation 4
Athenian Rhapsody (digital, $14.99)
Electronics Puzzle Lab (digital, $4.99)
Imagine Earth (digital, $24.99)
Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution (digital, $49.99)
Rainbow Cotton (digital, $19.99)

PlayStation 5
Crow Country (digital, $19.99)
Fabledom (digital, $TBA)
Gift (digital, $24.99)
The Land Beneath Us (digital, $TBA)
The Origin: Blind Maid (digital, $19.99)

Switch
1000xResist (digital, $17.99)
Animals Drop (digital, $1.99)
Animal Well (digital, $24.99)
Athenian Rhapsody (digital, $14.99)
Awesome Pea 3 (digital, $3.99)
Battle Minesweeper Online (digital, $1.99)
Biomutant (digital, $31.99)
Braid, Anniversary Edition (digital, $19.99)
Chronicles of Magic: Divided Kingdoms (digital, $14.99)
CorpoNation: The Sorting Process (digital, $14.99)
Crab Digger Tropical Island (digital, $5.99)
Culinary Cooking Master Simulator (digital, $12.99)
Dark Fantasy Epic Jigsaw Puzzle (digital, $3.74)
Devil Girl (digital, $22.49)
EGGCONSOLE Wanders From Ys PC-8801mkIISR (digital, $6.49)
Gearhead Karting Simulator – Mechanic & Racing (digital, $11.99)
Gift (digital, $24.99)
Hand in Hand (digital, $12.00)
Hotel Hustle (digital, $10.99)
Imagine Earth (digital, $24.99)
Kinduo 2 – Frostbite (digital, $4.99)
Little Kitty, Big City (digital, $22.49)
Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warrior (digital, $24.99)
Mars Farming 2034 (digital, $9.99)
MergeZ (digital, $0.99)
Mysterious Adventure of Michael 2 (digital, $2.07)
Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution (digital, $49.99)
Oniko Kororin Game (digital, $2.00)
Pummel Party (digital, $14.99)
QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~ (digital, $17.99)
Rainbow Cotton (digital, $19.99)
Roman City Tycoon (digital, $9.99)
Roman Empire Farming (digital, $9.99)
Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer (digital, $14.44)
Spot the Odd! (digital, $1.99)
Summer Games Challenge (digital, $13.99)
The Land Beneath Us (digital, $14.99)
Vampire: Darkness Falls (digital, $4.99)

Xbox One
Athenian Rhapsody (digital, $14.99)
Awesome Pea 3 (digital, $3.99)
CorpoNation: The Sorting Process (digital, $14.99)
Electronics Puzzle Lab (digital, $4.99)
Little Kitty, Big City (digital, $22.49)
Paper Flight: Future Battles (digital, $9.99)
Please Fix the Road (digital, $TBA)
Rainbow Cotton (digital, $19.99)
The Origin: Blind Maid (digital, $19.99)
Turbo Dash Kart 2024 Racing (digital, $9.99)

PC
1000xResist ($17.99)
Animal Well ($22.49)
Athenian Rhapsody ($14.99)
Braid, Anniversary Edition ($9.99)
Brocula ($19.99)
Cluckmech Oasis ($8.99)
Crow Country ($17.99)
Cryptmaster ($22.49)
Cyber Manhunt 2: New World ($8.99)
Dream Engines: Nomad Cities ($20.99)
Homeworld 3 ($59.99)
King Arthur: Legion IX ($17.99)
Little Kitty, Big City (digital, $22.49)
Men of War II ($TBA)
Moose Miners ($7.99)
Mullet Madjack ($TBA)
Rabbit and Steel ($13.49)
Robobeat ($TBA)
Rogue Voltage ($14.39)
Ruindog ($8.09)
The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication ($22.49)
The Rogue Prince of Persia (delayed)
Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT- ($31.49)

Rob’s pick: Given the continual announcements of closures and lay-offs, it’s clear that the game industry’s fondness for low-risk, big-budget projects isn’t effective. While that probably isn’t going to change in the foreseeable future, Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution looks to provide an whimsical reprieve from the status quo.  Here, NepNep is awarded the role of company president and tasked with revitalizing a fallen publisher. Yes, R:Evolution offers the allegory you’ve come to expect, this time with failed goddesses representing the tragic trio of the Apple Pippin, Atari Jaguar, and 3DO.

Mullet Madjack is a simple, rather linear first-person shooter with an interesting premise. Here, you only have a few seconds to live as you scale a multi-floored tower. But in this roguelike, you’ll earn a bit more time every time you gun down an enemy. The pace is frantic, the visuals merge 90’s anime with a gratuitous amount of bloodletting. I’m not sure about long-term value, but Madjack is great in short doses.

Ryan’s pick: Typically, dungeon crawlers rely heavily on exploration and predictable turn-based battle sequences, but Cryptmaster gets my official pick this week by deviating from the norm and opting to use character word input to control things in the game. Allowing me to say anything I want to enemies to engage with them seems like a pretty fun premise to test out. I feel like this is a good time to allude to the one mechanic in Seaman where you could move the game forward by just asking, “What’s up?” to him, so I hope the word input mechanics are a bit more substantial in this DRPG. Visually the game is done in black and white, but the environments seem pretty well detailed for this style, and equally enemies range among various levels of bizarre and match the overall aesthetic. If you’re into dungeon crawlers and want to try something different this could be one to try.

I too think that Mullet Madjack looks like a lot of fun. I think my favorite thing about its art is how bright and saturated everything looks. Well, that, and the Duke Nukem Mighty Foot attack. It’s nearly impossible for me to say no to any retro-inspired FPS games, so this one also goes in my basket this week. One final mention must be cast to the 90’s style survival horror game Crow Country. It certainly looks like a horror game that would have shipped on PS1, so if you enjoyed that era of games, take a look at this one.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Nep Nep! Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! I’m always happy when I get to play a Neptunia game. Yes, they’re the B-tier of JRPGs, and will never be a Dragon Quest, Atelier, or Persona, but who cares? If the game makes you smile, it has merit, and Neptunia never fails to make me smile. I’m very much looking forward to Netpunia Game Maker R:Evolution.

I’m also quite interested in Crow Country. The visuals caught my eye as a kind of retro-style throwback to the survival horror of old, but I’m now also increasingly hearing reports that the game is not just a cheap homage but rather something that has a genuine Silent Hill vibe and smarts about it. I certainly hope so. The more smart horror out there, the better.